Anyone who has done it knows that caring for a special needs child is more than a full time job. Whether you are that child’s parent or care-giver, a volunteer, family member or professional, tending to that child’s wants and needs is a responsibility like no other, both demanding and rewarding in ways that are often difficult to fully describe to someone who has never attempted it.

For all of these reasons, the question of whether or not to send a special needs child, or an adult, for that matter, who is under your care to a summer camping facility specifically designed and organized for that purpose is a more difficult one to answer than it might seem to an outsider.

Summer camping for special needs individuals is no longer a novel concept. Camps operating under the auspices of respected Jewish organizations, such as Camp HASC, have established an outstanding record for safety and effectiveness in meeting the special needs of their campers. Today, such camps have, on the premises, trained and experienced medical personnel, and the necessary medical equipment and facilities to deal with all but the most serious medical emergencies. At the camp, the procedures and resources are in place to provide any special needs individual with whatever special diet, medication or therapies he can be expected to need during his stay. The camp is prepared, and its staff is on constant alert for any signs of a serious or unexpected medical emergency, with contingency plans in place for handling virtually any conceivable situation.

Better Care Than They Could Get at Home

These summer camps have proven that they can be trusted, even by the most conscientious parent or care-giver, to provide the highest level of specialized attention to any individual placed under their care. They are fully prepared to provide care equal to or better quality than the special needs individual would have received if he had stayed home for the summer.

Of course, the welfare and well-being of the special needs individual is paramount in any such decision, but there are also other factors to be considered, including the needs of the parents. One of the positive aspects of sending a special needs individual for a camping experience is that it provides a respite for everyone who has been caring for that individual in his home and daily living environment. Especially for the parents, it is a 24/7 responsibility, which exacts both a physical and emotional toll, no matter how dedicated and motivated they may be. For one thing, they can never totally relax, or allow themselves to focus entirely on anything else, because in the back of their mind they know that they must always be prepared to respond to the next challenge or emergency, which could come at any time.

Of course, one might say the same thing for the parents of any newborn child, for example, but there is an important difference. For a baby, or a child undergoing a medical crisis, to cite another example, this period of high alert is finite. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. As the infant matures, and can do more things for himself, the level of parental alert can be safely reduced over time. Even a critically ill child, with Hashem’s help, will eventually recover, allowing his parent’s life to return to “normal” (although that, admittedly, is a relative term).

No Light at the End of the Tunnel

There is no such prospect for the parents of most special needs individuals. Their level of responsibility and alert will remain more or less constant, most likely for the entire lifetime of the special needs individual. Usually, there is no “light” for them to look forward to at the end of that tunnel. That is why a period of respite, at some point, is indispensable.

Even if they are doing it purely out of love for their child, and the mitzvah, there are limits to emotional and physical endurance which even the most motivated and determined parent ignores at his peril. They are often the last ones to notice the cumulative toll that their mission might have taken on their psyches, their personal relationships, their careers and even their blood pressure.

They will all benefit greatly from a timely break in their responsibilities. During this period their minds and bodies will be able to “recharge” their emotional, spiritual and physical “batteries.” During that period of respite, even if it is just for a weekend rather than for an entire summer, the parents will have a chance to step back and think about something other than the immediate needs and schedule of this child who has been so totally dependant on their care.

The child will benefit too, because the respite will make the parent or care giver that much more effective at his or her task. But there are other important benefits that special needs individuals derive from a summer experience at camp, and these have nothing to do with the care-givers they have left behind.

Taking a Chance to Try Again

For special needs individuals, a change in their physical and social environment, and a break from their familiar daily routine is an opportunity. The new environment challenges them to test the limits of what they can or can’t do all over again, in front of people who have no prior expectations of them.

Individuals who undergo the same therapy in the same environment, in front of the same people, day after day, week after week, month after month, can easily succumb to the temptation to give up trying to reach the goal or perform the task which has frustrated them for so long. But in a summer camp, where everything is new to them, where they have met new friends whom they would like to please and impress, they may be more willing to take the chance and try again, in the hope that maybe this time they can succeed.

The camp also provides an optimum ratio of campers to counselors, who are typically idealistic young people whose enthusiasm can be infectious. With their counselors’ encouragement, special needs children and adults often try a little harder than they might if they were still at home.

New Opportunities in a Near-Ideal Environment

In the near-ideal, controlled environment of the camp, special needs individuals are treated like VIP’s. They are the focus of attention, and visits by famous celebrities, rabbis and entertainers help to make them feel “special” in the most positive sense of that overused word.

The campers are also given opportunities to try things that they might have always dreamed of, but never thought they would ever have a chance to attempt in real life. For example, Camp HASC has facilities designed to expand the spectrum of activities in which special needs individuals can take part. This includes a specially constructed swimming pool with a long, gently angled entrance ramp that enables someone sitting in a wheelchair to safely wheel themselves into the water unassisted. Camp HASC also has a softball field with a track built-in along the base paths to enable a wheelchair-bound child to more fully participate in team sports. There is also a large gym used for both sports and a myriad of other recreational activities of all kinds, including music concerts, circuses, color war and competitive sports. Facilities like these offer their campers opportunities to do things that simply are not available to them anywhere else.

“Could I really ride on the back of a horse, or on a motorcycle? Could I actually get up on a stage with a Jewish music star and sing with him into the microphone in front of an audience? Could I go to home plate and swing a bat at a pitched baseball? And if I actually hit it, could I get to first place safely? And if I can do these things I never thought I could, what else can I do that I never imagined?” Once you get a special needs child thinking this way, there is no end to the surprising things he might actually be able to do.

There camp environment also fosters a feeling of teamwork among the campers and counselors, who cheer one another on in their common efforts to overcome their challenges. This creates positive peer pressure and a “team spirit” among campers striving to reach their individual therapy goals.

A Place Where Everyone is a Star

In camp, the special needs individuals, along with their counselors and therapists, create a little community of their own, complete with its own unique sense of identity, and reinforced by their shared camp experiences. This gives the campers a set of memories held in common that are theirs and theirs alone.

In a place like Camp HASC, for example, every child is treated like a “star,” confident that they will be accepted on their own terms, as who they really are, without being stigmatized by their disability. Instead of having their horizons limited, the camping environment and the activities at hand are adjusted to suit their needs. Everything is done to maximize each child’s abilities in order to enable them to participate in every activity and summer camp experience.

For young adults in particular, attending such a camp gives them a life experience of their own, apart from their parents, siblings and year-round care-givers. They return home when the summer is over with a tremendous sense of accomplishment, having experienced the joy of achieving a long-sought goal, along with memories they will cherish year-round.

These children’s year-round teachers and therapists have reported that instead of regressing over the summer, the camping experience has allowed them to progress. They return after the summer with their enthusiasm and self-confidence boosted, yielding a positive impact on the subsequent progress of their therapy. As soon as they return home, the countdown immediately begins as they look forward to the next camping season, when they can share with their fellow campers and counselors all that has happened to them over the past year.

Particularly for older children, summer camp is part of the process of growing up and developing a unique sense of themselves. This is what all parents ultimately want for their child, but it can only happen when their child is apart from them, giving him the opportunity to become his own person.

The respite offered by sending a special needs child to a suitable summer camp program is important to the parents and care-givers, but it is even more important to the child’s development, both as measured by his progress in overcoming his challenges, and in developing an identity all his own.

Yaakov Kornreich is a freelance journalist and President of YK Services Ltd., serving Jewish organizations and yeshivos in the United States and Eretz Yisroel, such as Camp HASC. He also writes regularly for the American edition of Yated Ne’eman.

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